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Fed up with nostalgia culture
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Everywhere I look I seem to see things being dredged up from the 80s and 90s and revived for the 21st Century. Gladiators, Take That, The Spice Girls, new rave, Indiana Jones, Rambo, Rocky... There even talking about shooting a sequel to Top Gun with Cruise as a fighter pilot instructor! Most if not all of these things never capture their original essence and seem to be aimed at people who refuse to grow up/discover new stuff.
Sure remembering things from my E number fuelled childhood is fun, but I think it's best left as a memory rather than anything else. No matter how you paint it, seeing people struggle to recapture their former glory is just uncomfortable. I went to see The Rolling Stones a couple of years ago with my parents and as much as it was a thrill to hear them live, it just didn't have the right vibe. Whether it was because I saw the ever smirking Steve McLaren by the bar with his wife or the sheer number of overweight grandfathers clumsily swaying to the music, I couldn't help but feel like the context was all wrong- this wasn't Jagger, Richards et al. in their pulsing prime but a rather deflated, dispirited band going through the motions.
So if we can't look backwards where else can we look? Well I think the best things that spring forth in our culture come from a new source, a daring vision of something bold and fresh. This doesn't mean to say that artists etc. can not borrow from the past, but they must exercise caution and create something that can have new meaning.
So just seeing what everyone thinks really. Feel free to suggest things which have successfully been revived from the past/disagree with me entirely/commend my argument.
Sure remembering things from my E number fuelled childhood is fun, but I think it's best left as a memory rather than anything else. No matter how you paint it, seeing people struggle to recapture their former glory is just uncomfortable. I went to see The Rolling Stones a couple of years ago with my parents and as much as it was a thrill to hear them live, it just didn't have the right vibe. Whether it was because I saw the ever smirking Steve McLaren by the bar with his wife or the sheer number of overweight grandfathers clumsily swaying to the music, I couldn't help but feel like the context was all wrong- this wasn't Jagger, Richards et al. in their pulsing prime but a rather deflated, dispirited band going through the motions.
So if we can't look backwards where else can we look? Well I think the best things that spring forth in our culture come from a new source, a daring vision of something bold and fresh. This doesn't mean to say that artists etc. can not borrow from the past, but they must exercise caution and create something that can have new meaning.
So just seeing what everyone thinks really. Feel free to suggest things which have successfully been revived from the past/disagree with me entirely/commend my argument.
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Comments
That said I don't dwell.
Don't be ridiculous. You should know by now, our parents' generation invented everything.
Haha good point.
Stuff doesnt just become not good anymore just because its not brand new.
I agree that there's too much nostalgia around. Sure, there's stuff I enjoy from the 70s 80s and 90s, occasionally I enjoy remembering the fun times from those days. The problem with too much of it is you risk missing today's stuff. Music particularly tend to be a reaction to the times it was made in and just isn't the same in different times. Todays stuff is unfamiliar and so is less accessible unless you make an effort.
As far as bands and films are concerned the agents and companies with the licenses are cashing in on the opportunity to make more money from known names that will get some sales on familiarity alone. And a number of rock stars suddenly discover they've become (relatively) skint after not working for a few years and some aren't qualified to do anything else.
Having said that I would consider St Trinians to be the best revival of an old film (not the best film, but the best revival) very true to the spirit of the original with a modern feel - that probably depends on whether you liked St Trinians films in the first place though!
People will always hark back to the past for reasons beneficial to themselves. If you go back long enough, you'll find a time when smoking was good for you.
Hmmm not sure I do think there are bands that come along and completely reinvent the wheel with little influence from other bands.
*sigh*
To this very day, I search eBay for CD albums from 90's artists, and I'm considering getting CD's of what I already had on tapes. I watched very little TV and continue not to have a TV, but I was a Glad-addict as well.
My favourite year was 1995. Not just for music but for everything :-) And no, that doesn't include the Blur vs Oasis crap!
You have to look backwards for inspiration,
unless of course you can see into the future.
Every kind of entertainment i can think of
has a foundation in the past.
Show me something new.
As for hollywood remakes, one of the worst films I ever saw was Thomas and the magic railroad, which was downright blasphemy! I mean did the producers even read any of the books (or watch the original TV programs)?
punk in 1976/7?
Even that had its orgins elsewhere. It still has its roots in rock and rolll
Blues chords rock rythms ....where were you?
New York Dolls - most early punks cited them as influences.
To leave music aside for a moment it occured to me the other night that one reason for the rise in nostalgia at the moment (yes, its always been with us, but there is more of it about at the moment) is that we now have masses of TV channels plus DVDs and downloads. In the days of three or four TV channels and going to the cinema to see films, there simply wasn't the amount of airtime to be filled. Programmers have to fill their schedules with something so they use old programmes. There's probably more new stuff about these days than, say, 20 years ago but there's masses more channels to be filled.
If we agree with the theory of the late great Douglas Adams that commercial television is not in the business of supplying programmes to its audiences, it's in the business of supplying audiences to its advertisers, then the impetus for putting on familiar, nostalgic shows that they know a big proportion of people will eagerly watch - rather than new content that may flop and has an unknown demographic - makes sense.
makes much sense.